History Commons^™

Rachel Franks, Double Agent: A Librarian And A Crime Author - William Blick Interviews Rachel Franks (January 2024), William Blick

Publications and Research

The following is an interview from January 2024 with Librarian and Crime Scholar, Rachel Franks and was posted on the Captivating Criminality Blog:

Rachel Franks is the Coordinator, Scholarship at the State Library of New South Wales and an Honorary Associate Lecture at The University of Newcastle (Australia). She holds PhDs in Australian crime fiction (Central Queensland University) and in true crime texts (University of Sydney). A qualified educator and librarian, her extensive work on crime fiction, true crime, popular culture and information science has been presented at numerous conferences, as well as on radio and television. An award-winning …

Review Of The Book Denial Of Genocides In The Twenty-First Century, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book Denial of Genocides in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Bedross Der Matossian.

Amplifying Collections With Oral Histories In A Virtual World: The Student Help Lived Experience Project At Queens College Cuny, Annie E. Tummino, Victoria Fernandez

Publications and Research

In response to the challenges brought on by the onset of the pandemic, the Queens College Special Collection and Archives (SCA) created the “Student Help: Lived Experience” student fellowship, designed to be completely remote. The project is an initiative to further document the activities of Queens College students who participated in both the Virginia and South Jamaica Student Help Projects in the early to mid-1960s. The Virginia Student Help Project was an intensive education effort during the summer of 1963 in Prince Edward County, Virginia where public schools were closed for five years in massive resistance to integration. The Jamaica …

Invisible Inequalities: Persistent Health Threats In The Urban Built Environment, Kara M. Schlichting, Melanie A. Kiechle

Publications and Research

A city’s materiality creates health and illness. We both write about air – its movement and its temperature – as it affects human bodies. We offer two topics as case studies, heat and ventilation, and how they exacerbate the effects of each other, to illustrate the long history of seemingly new challenges posed by the novel coronavirus. The environmental inequalities of heat exposure and access to fresh air underscore that cities can only be considered ‘low impact’ on the environment from a top-down, large-scale approach. In writing about air and heat, we direct attention to the feel and the bodily …

Commemorating A Legacy Of Dissent: Revisiting Campus Activism 1968-1970, Annie E. Tummino

Publications and Research

On the heels of the student revolt at Columbia in 1968, Queens College students launched their own militant actions and demands for change on campus. Using primary source materials from the Benjamin Rosenthal Library’s Special Collections and Archives, the presentation covers the New Left and Anti-War movements, as well as an uprising led by Black and Puerto Rican students influenced by the ideologies of Black Power and self-determination. The role of archives in preserving activist history and educating current and future generations is also touched on.

Mabou Mines’ Dead End Kids And Performing Artists For Nuclear Disarmament, Hillary Miller

Publications and Research

Performance studies scholar and theater historian Hillary Miller offers a new study of the 1980 production of Dead End Kids: A History of Nuclear Power by the New York-based avant-garde theater collective, Mabou Mines. Through a close reading of the play, Miller explores the relationship between this production and the little researched organization, Performing Artists for Nuclear Disarmament (PAND), revealing the correlations between collaboratively-generated theater practices and concurrent protest movements.

Inequality In Education, Judith R. Kafka

Publications and Research

This chapter reviews research on the history of inequality in education. Across the globe and since the advent of formal schooling, children from wealthier families have had access to more education, and more costly education, than their less affluent peers. More physically and intellectually advantaged children have also, on average, had greater educational opportunities than their less fortunate peers. Yet within this general historic truth lies considerable variation in terms of how, to what extent, and by what political justification educational inequalities have existed and persisted. Historians have sought to explain variations in inequality in education across time and place …

100 Years Ago: The Death Of Quentin Roosevelt, Keith J. Muchowski

Publications and Research

This blog post focuses on the life and military career of Quentin Roosevelt. Lieutenant Roosevelt died in an aviation firefight in France on July 14, 2018, Bastille Day. He left behind his fiancee Flora Payne Whitney, an heir to the Whitney and Vanderbilt fortunes.

Universal Alienation And The Real Subsumption Of Daily Life Under Capital: A Response To Hardt And Negri, David Harvey

Publications and Research

This contribution is part of a debate between Michael Hardt/Toni Negri and David Harvey on the occasion of Marx’s bicentenary (May 5, 2018). The discussion focuses on the question of what capitalism looks like today and how it can best be challenged. In this article, David Harvey responds to Hardt and Negri’s previous debate-contributions.

The Cultural Cold War And The New Women Of Power. Making A Case Based On The Fulbright And Ford Foundations In Greece, Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

When in the 1950s C. Wright Mills was writing about the emergence of the new power elites he paid no attention to the presence of women in its midsts. He was not entirely mistaken. Yet there is a particular intertwining of the ideologies of leadership and masculinity which serves to maintain the status quo, the privilege of an elite and perpetuate preconceptions about political agency and gender. In an attempt to go beyond available models and predominantly masculine images of the postwar America the present article accounts for women’s role in the postwar American efforts for cultural hegemony. It focuses …

Nora Evelyn Cordingley, Keith J. Muchowski

Publications and Research

Nora Evelyn Cordingley worked for the Roosevelt Memorial Association at the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace. She helped Hermann Hagedorn build the extensive collection of materials related to President Theodore Roosevelt starting in the early 1920s until the collection moved to Harvard University in the early 1940s. She also helped in the project to publish Theodore Roosevelt's letters. Ms. Cordingley died in her office within the Widener Library in 1951.

"Martin Luther King, Jr.'S Greater Vision: Manually Bending The Arc Of Time Towards Justice", Kristopher B. Burrell

Publications and Research

This speech was given by Dr. Kristopher Burrell on January 16, 2017at St. Paul’s Church — National Historic Site, Mount Vernon, NY.

"How Mature Are We? The Enduring Legacy Of Martin Luther King, Jr.'S 'Beyond Vietnam' Speech", Kristopher B. Burrell

Publications and Research

This speech was given by Dr. Kristopher Burrell on January 15, 2018 at St. Paul’s Church — National Historic Site, Mount Vernon, NY.

Evolution Of Western Library Catalogs: The Rising Expectations Of Users, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

This paper traces the historical development of library catalogs from primitive catalogs in ancient times to current next generational catalogs, which are summarized into three stages: the agricultural catalog stage, the industrial catalog stage and the information catalog stage. In particular, this paper focuses on the discussion of the rise of users’ expectations on library catalogs at different stages and gives emphasis to what impact they have created accordingly.

Introduction To "Migration And The Crisis Of The Modern Nation State", Frank Jacob, Adam Luedtke

Publications and Research

Introduction to an anthology dealing with the interrelationship between migration and a supposedly existing crisis of the modern nation state.

The Jews Of Italy (1650-1815), Francesca Bregoli

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Confronting The Present: Migration In Sidney Mintz’S Journal For The People Of Puerto Rico, Ismael Garcia-Colon

Publications and Research

Sidney Mintz’s field journal for The People of Puerto Rico, published in 1956, is a valuable source for historical anthropological work. Until now, however, it has remained a hidden treasure for the anthropology of migration. By the late 1940s and 1950s, migration was central to the lives of Puerto Rican sugarcane workers and their families, and Mintz recorded important details of it. His journal shows how people maneuvered within fields of power that were full of opportunities and constraints for people seeking to make a living by migrating. Thanks to Mintz, anthropologists can learn about working-class Puerto Ricans’ experiences, lives, …

Culturally Responsive Teaching: Implications For Educational Justice, Magnus O. Bassey

Publications and Research

Educational justice is a major global challenge. In most underdeveloped countries, many students do not have access to education and in most advanced democracies, school attainment and success are still, to a large extent, dependent on a student’s social background. However, it has often been argued that social justice is an essential part of teachers’ work in a democracy. This article raises an important overriding question: how can we realize the goal of educational justice in the field of teaching? In this essay, I examine culturally responsive teaching as an educational practice and conclude that it is possible to realize …

Rethinking Greece: Despina Lalaki On Hellenism, State-Building, Archaeology And The "Democratic West", Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

South African Marriage In Policy And Practice: A Dynamic Story, Michael W. Yarbrough

Publications and Research

Law forms one of the major structural contexts within which family lives play out, yet the precise dynamics connecting these two foundational institutions are still poorly understood. This article attempts to help bridge this gap by applying sociolegal concepts to empirical findings about state law's role in family, and especially in marriage, drawn from across several decades and disciplines of South Africanist scholarly research. I sketch the broad outlines of a nuanced theoretical approach for analysing the law-family relationship, which insists that the relationship entails a contingent and dynamic interplay between relatively powerful regulating institutions and relatively powerless regulated populations. …

Nexus: The Great War's Grain Crisis And The Coming Of Prohibition In America, Keith J. Muchowski

Publications and Research

One of the most immediate reasons for the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment was the Grain Crisis of the First World War. The shortage of this food staple enabled Temperance activists to advocate for limits on the brewing of beers and malt beverages. Herbert Hoover oversaw the Commission for Relief in Belgium during this period. Prohibition became law just after the Great War.

In Search Of A Grand Narrative: The Turbulent History Of Teaching, Judith R. Kafka

Publications and Research

For this review of research on the history of teaching, I use the instructional triangle as an organizing tool and frame of analysis to explore what we know about who taught, who was taught, and what was taught across space and time.

In the first section of this chapter I review historical research on who taught in American classrooms. One overwhelming theme throughout this literature is that policy makers, school leaders, and the general public have historically cared a great deal about who a teacher was, often basing their preferences on the belief that a teacher’s social characteristics would shape …

Greater New York: The Sports Capital Of Depression Era America, Jeffrey A. Kroessler

Publications and Research

Any history of the Great Depression is incomplete if it neglects sports, and New York City was the unrivaled sports capital of America. From professional baseball to college basketball to boxing, the most important sporting events took place in New York's legendary venues: Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds, Madison Square Garden, Forest Hills, and Belmont Park. Sports also mirrored social issues. Joe Louis's boxing matches against white opponents represented more than a simple athletic contest and stimulated racial and ethnic pride, especially in his bouts with Max Schmeling. Long Island University's dominant basketball team boycotted the 1936 Olympic trials to …

The Mcgowan Trilogy (Plays), Seamus O'Scanlain

Publications and Research

The McGowan Trilogy is a psychological journey of violence, sorrow and love lost. Set in 1980s Ireland after the Brighton Bombing which targeted Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet it follows the exploits of Victor M. McGowan - a new breed of IRA enforcer - in love with puns, guns and the pogo. The Trilogy won awards for Best Actress, Best Director and Best Production in 2014 and played for 20 nights in New York. In 2015 it played in the UK at the Kino-Teatr, An Taibhdhearc, The Town hall Westport and The Town Hall Galway.

Review: New York City Public Schools From Brownsville To Bloomberg, Stephen Brier

Publications and Research

Review of Heather Lewis's 2015 book, New York City Public Schools from Brownsville to Bloomberg, which explores the historical and educational policy context of the struggle for community control of the New York City public schools from the 1960s to 2000, the year Mayor Michael Bloomberg assumed control over the city's public school system.

Research And Documentation In The 21st Century: Oral History And Genealogy Of The Yuan Shikai Family, Sheau-Yueh J. Chao

Publications and Research

The oral histories and genealogies have long been used by historians, archaeologists, sociologists, ethnologists, and demographers in their investigation of past human behavior on social and historical evidences relating to a lineage organization or a clan. Chinese genealogical records has been used for thousands of years to record the genealogical history of a family, including a family’s origin, its subordinate lines, names and ages of the members, records of marriages, births and deaths, merits and deeds, and in early days brief biographical information of solely the male family members. This paper will examine the history of Chinese names and the …

The Student As Subaltern: Reconsidering The Role Of Student Life Material Collections At North American Universities, Jessica L. Wagner

Publications and Research

This article argues for college and university archivists to undertake advocacy and activism to better document student life. It discusses key shifts in archival and historical theory that supported an interest in collecting from a wide variety of people rather than just elites. Next, it describes recent archival scholarship on student life materials and considers the extent to which college and university archives are actively documenting the student experience via the collection of these materials. Analysis of the results of a survey of college and university archivists about the nature of these collections sheds further light on prevailing opinions of …

We Are Also What We Eat With: A Review Of Consider The Fork: A History Of How We Cook And Eat By Bee Wilson, Claire Stewart

Publications and Research

Consider the Fork: A History of How we Cook and Eat, by Bee Wilson discusses how kitchen tools and utensils are not mere inanimate objects. Rather, kitchen tools have shaped the way we cook, and fashioned the manner in which we eat and shaped our civilization in unexpected ways. A book review by Claire Stewart.

Where From Here? Ideological Perspectives On The Future Of The Civil Rights Movement, 1964-1966, Kristopher B. Burrell

Publications and Research

Many civil rights movement activist-intellectuals declared that the movement was in a state of "crisis" by the mid-1960s. This article discusses how four black intellectuals--Kenneth Clark, Bayard Rustin, George Schuyler, and Malcolm X--from different ideological perspectives responded to the perception that the movement was in crisis and examines how their ideological underpinnings affected their policy proposals for achieving black equality in the United States. These leaders also wanted to ensure the continued relevance of the movement for racial equality in the United States.

Early Life Of Yuan Shikai And The Formation Of Yuan Family, Sheau-Yueh J. Chao, Kachuen Yuan Gee

Publications and Research

This paper provides biographical sketches of famous Yuan ancestors, including the genealogy of Yuan clan, early life of Yuan Shikai, and the genealogy of Yuan's direct family members.